Jack Berriault on Uri Avnery: "The Israeli Salvation Front"

We think that Uri Avnery has nailed it. His recent article is like an echo of the stand The Israel Palestine Project (TIPP) has been for some time. Particularly valuable is his “directive” to new leaders that they include all minorities living in Israel as well as the West Bank, and I assume Gaza as well. This is critical.

A major flaw in the leadership of Mohandas Gandhi in India was in making the movement for independence exclusively a Hindu movement. By excluding Muslims, a sizable minority, he laid the groundwork for the terrible events of violence that has yet to be resolved between Hindus and Muslems, as well as his own assassination.

There are some critical differences however. The new leadership Avnery espouses will be developing against 130+ years of opposite and contradictory national narratives of the Jewish Israelis and the Arabic Palestinians. These narratives live in fragmentary forms in the subconscious, for the most part, and therefore exert powerful influences even on the most enlightened.

Leading from a neutral place can only happen when the past has been resolved, as in closure, the result of a profound shift in perspective, in which the past is considered perfect just the way it is, and is not. TIPP is creating a workshop designed to produce this shift for the participants, to be given in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

It will not require a large number of primary leaders in both Israel and Palestine who have made this profound shift. We envision supporting and developing powerful leadership, for the next Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, or Martin Luther King Jr. for the region.